


your heart is glowing (and i’m crashing into you)

by isacabral



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Bechloe Week 2020, F/F, day five: fake dating, set during pp1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isacabral/pseuds/isacabral
Summary: Beca isn't as oblivious as everyone thinks. She knows how Jesse feels about her. The only thing she doesn't know is how to make him realize he's not what she's looking for.
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Comments: 21
Kudos: 219





	your heart is glowing (and i’m crashing into you)

**Author's Note:**

> can you believe i had this idea two years ago and only now did something about it? wow. thank you bechloe week for the push i needed!
> 
> also i can't thank andy enough on this one. this literally wouldn't exist without him. and julsy, with all her helpful tips and encouragement.
> 
> without further ado, here it goes! title's from john mayer's xo

Beca flopped on the grass next to her bag, glad to have a few moments to herself after spending all morning fending off Jesse’s unsubtle, relentless hints that they should have lunch together after their shift. She grabbed the sandwich she had made a point of buying at the campus coffee shop that morning — so she’d have an excuse to decline Jesse’s advances — and her water bottle, settling against a tree, and let out a tired breath.

This wasn’t so bad.

Despite her original reluctance in coming to Barden and engaging with college-related activities, Beca had to admit one thing — she quite enjoyed laying down on the grass at the quad. It was her prime place to just nap under a tree between classes and rehearsals or sit back and listen to her unfinished mixes, trying to figure out ways to tweak them to perfection as she absentmindedly people-watched.

And it just so happened that whenever Beca hung out on the quad and _not_ in her dorm, she could sometimes spot Chloe on her way to and from classes. It was, admittedly, a very nice bonus.

Because Chloe had a _thing_ about her — the way she always had a hint of a smile on her face, how sometimes it turned into a full-blown grin that did funny things to Beca's heart. Chloe was always humming some kind of tune, always touching people in a way that should be annoying, but just made you feel part of something… more, something special.

Beca sighed and placed the headphones' cups over her ears with more force than necessary once she was done with her sandwich. She scanned the quad for Chloe's signature red hair, just in case, and did her best to tamp down her disappointment when her search was fruitless. _It's fine_ , she told herself. She would see Chloe at rehearsals later today.

To be honest, she could handle not seeing Chloe until then; they'd seen each other this morning in the campus coffee shop anyway.

What she _couldn’t_ handle, however, was Jesse’s massive (and incredibly obvious) crush on her.

Beca wasn’t stupid. She could see the way Jesse mooned over her every time they hung out. And no matter how much she ignored him, no matter how borderline mean she was to him, he kept coming back with his puppy dog eyes. His unnecessary juice pouches and movie quotes were totally wasted on her, too.

Sure, it was annoying for the most part, but he had the potential to be a great friend if only he could just _take a goddamn hint_ and stop coming onto her.

She had a feeling that if she didn't nip it in the bud soon, it would come bite her in the ass sooner or later.

//

On Thursday, Beca was in the quad again, enjoying some precious stress-free moments before she had to rush to rehearsals.

She wondered how mad Aubrey would be if she managed to sneak _Bulletproof_ into their set when something odd caught her eye. Benji, wearing a full cowboy outfit, looking ready to go line dancing at some bar. Beca had half a mind to tease him about it when she took a look around and noticed with a jolt that all the Trebles and some BU Harmonics girls were wearing similar outfits.

Beca had the sinking suspicion she knew who was behind it when she spotted Jesse among them with a too-bright smile; they looked ready to start something ridiculous, like a themed riff-off or a flashmob, and Beca knew he was the likely culprit behind it.

They started toe-tapping and vocalizing to a tune Beca couldn't understand; something catchy and country. Then Jesse began to sing, looking directly at her, and his intentions were very clear: this over the top, cheesy dance was for _her._

_I've got this feeling, that time's just holding me down… I'll hit the ceiling or else I'll tear up this town!_

What was happening? Why were all these idiots doing this ridiculous line-dancing routine out in the open for everybody to see? What did that have to do with her?

_Lose your blues, everybody cut footloose!_

Everything was so chaotic; the song was very energetic and there was a lot of jumping around. When it ended, Jesse was standing in front of her, hands outstretched as if expecting Beca to join him in a dance.

_What the fuck?_

“What do you say, Becaw?” he puffed out, smiling. “Wanna cut loose with me this weekend?”

“What?” Beca let out a nervous laugh.

Everybody was looking at them expectantly and Beca was torn between running, yelling or faking her own death.

“This is my grand gesture,” Jesse explained in a should-have-been-obvious tone. “I’m wooing you.”

Beca couldn’t hold in her grimace. The situation just kept getting worse, she needed to fix it.

“Oh, uh,” she looked around, glad people were starting to lose interest with how long it was taking for her to react. “Look dude, I’m sorry but I just… I can’t, okay?”

“Oh,” Jesse deflated like a popped balloon, causing the knots in her stomach to tighten. Damn those distraught puppy eyes. “Why not? Is there something wrong?”

Beca wanted to scream; she wasn’t good at keeping her temper in check during confrontations and it tended to land her in hot water more often than not.

“No,” Beca stressed. “It’s just that, you see, I—” she took a deep breath, a fleeting thought crossing her mind and sparking an idea. “I’m already dating. Someone.”

“Oh?” Jesse looked even more dejected than before. “Who is it?”

“Chloe,” Beca blurted, saying the first name that popped in her head, trying to sound convincing. “Yeah. Chloe. I’m dating Chloe.”

She blushed at the thought; she _wished_ she had the guts to ask Chloe out on a date. In a weird, roundabout way, she kind of envied the courage it had taken Jesse to arrange that whole thing to ask her out.

(Not that Beca would _ever_ consider putting herself on the spotlight like that, but she had to admit, it seemed like something Chloe would probably love — they were kind of just opposites like that.)

“She’s a lucky girl,” Jesse cut into her thoughts, voice strained.

At that, Beca genuinely smiled. “Believe me, I’m the lucky one.”

//

Beca tried to keep a low-profile at rehearsals that afternoon; everybody was talking about that stupid flashmob. Video bits of it were spreading around like wildfire through campus and everyone wanted to find out who it was about — Beca was not-so-secretly grateful that none of them seemed to show her.

“I heard it was all Donald’s idea,” Jessica said. “He’s got a crush on a girl from my Bio lab.”

“Girl, please,” Cynthia-Rose scoffed. “This cheesy shit has Benji written all over it.”

“He’s not even a Treble!”

Beca pointedly avoided joining the discussion, choosing instead to sit next to Chloe on the bleachers, who for some reason wasn’t that invested in the flashmob story. Whatever that reason was, Beca was grateful for it.

“Hey,” Beca said with a half-smile, sighing in relief when Chloe handed her a water bottle. “Ugh, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Chloe’s amused expression at the way Beca was gulping down the water caused Beca’s cheeks to turn an even darker shade of red.

_Stupid crush._

“So,” Chloe said after Beca returned her bottle. “I had the most interesting conversation with Jesse today.”

Previously almost quenched, suddenly it was like Beca hadn’t drunk a single droplet of water. Her mouth went dry at the many possibilities behind Chloe’s statement.

“Did he quote some dumb, old movie at you?” Beca tried to laugh but it came out weak and she knew it.

"As a matter of fact, he did," Chloe grinned. "There's no crying in baseball." Beca just gave her a blank stare. " _A League Of Their Own_."

Beca frowned; that didn’t even make any sense.

"He said it right after he gave me this big speech about how I was lucky to have you and better be treating you right," Chloe said, making Beca's spine go rigid. "Beca, why does Jesse think we're dating?"

Beca wanted to lie, she really did, but there was no deceiving when Chloe's piercing blue eyes looked like they could see Beca's deepest secrets.

"I… may have told him that?" Beca’s face contorted into a grimace. "I'm sorry."

"Why would you tell him we were dating?" Chloe asked, sounding confused and not angry as Beca had expected.

"If I tell you, do you promise not to laugh?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Chloe said solemnly. "You can tell me," she gave Beca's hand a reassuring squeeze and Beca blew out a breath.

"Okay so, y'know that flash mob thing?" she started. "It was Jesse's idea. He thought it'd be a good idea to ask me out on a date like that."

"Oh, my God," Chloe snorted a laugh and Beca glared at her. "I'm sorry, but this is too funny."

"As funny as me panicking when he asked me if I wanted to 'cut loose' with him this weekend and I said I couldn't because I'm dating you?" Beca didn't mean to but as Chloe's whole body shook with laughter she found herself smiling too.

"Did he really say that?"

"Dude, yeah," Beca laughed. "And then he looked _so_ sad when I said no. It was awful."

Chloe took a couple of deep breaths to try and reign in her laughter but when she looked back at Beca her eyes were still sparkling with mirth.

"So you told him we were dating?" she asked, a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raising in question.

"Just to get him off my back,” Beca shrugged. Chloe's face was unreadable, causing Beca to rush out. "Can you go with it? Just until this blows over."

Chloe hummed for a moment. "Sure, yeah,” she agreed much more easily than Beca would’ve expected. In response, Beca let out a relieved sigh.

“But what would I have to do?” Chloe asked, causing Beca’s heart rate to spike again. “Hold your hand?" she laced their fingers together over the armrest and Beca gulped. "Stand closer to you?" she leaned closer and Beca could feel her breathing getting more and more ragged. "Kiss you?"

They were so close their noses were almost touching; if Beca leaned in a little bit more she'd be able to _finally_ do what she had been wanting to ever since Chloe burst into her shower demanding she sang her lady jam. Just a little bit further…

"Break's over, ladies!" Aubrey called out sharply, blowing on her whistle. "Come on!"

Beca groaned, cursing under her breath as she dropped her head to fall on Chloe’s shoulder; talk about a ruined moment. She felt the soft vibrations of Chloe’s chuckle and couldn’t help but smile a little bit too.

"Duty calls," Chloe laughed, bumping Beca’s head until she looked at her. "But… can we try this again later?"

Like she said, Beca wasn't as oblivious as everyone thought. She knew perfectly well what Chloe meant by that, the intentions behind her hopeful look. And suddenly she was very grateful for her stupid lie to Jesse.

"Dude... yeah."

**Author's Note:**

> don't forget to tell me what you think! you can also find me @snowonebutyou on tumblr and twitter.


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